Recipe: How to make Swedish seeded rye bread
Swedish food writer John Duxbury shares his recipe for tasty seeded rye bread.
Rågbröd (rye bread) is very popular in Sweden. When thinly sliced it is perfect with cheese or topped with salmon or prawns.
This version uses sunflower seeds and golden linseed as well as cracked rye and wheat to give it a fabulous nutty texture. It’s a really tasty loaf to be enjoyed slowly! Don’t worry it is not dry, it keeps well and it has a fabulous dark crust. John Duxbury
Summary
Makes: One large loaf
Level: Easy
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 60 minutes
TOTAL: 75 minutes
Tips
• Swedes use mörk sirap (dark syrup) which can be bought in specialist shops or online. If you can’t find mörk sirap use 65 g of black treacle and 60 g of golden syrup or 90 g molasses and 35 g corn syrup or golden syrup.
• Some of the other ingredients are not normally stocked by supermarkets, but are worth searching out. For instance, the cracked rye (shown above) helps to give the bread a lovely nutty texture. All the ingredients can be bought at good health food stores or online.
• Some rye breads are best left for 24 hours before slicing but this version is good to eat as soon as it has cooled, so that you can enjoy the fabulous crust and the wonderfully sweet aroma at its freshest.
• If you have a stand-mixer, such as a kMix or a KitchenAid, I recommend using it as the ingredients are very hard to mix.
Ingredients
Day 1
150 g cracked rye
50 g cracked wheat
50 g sunflower seeds
25 g linseeds
12 g salt
250 g* boiling water
*We recommend measuring all quantities in grams.
Day 2
150 g wholemeal (dark) rye flour
150 g white rye flour
150 g wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
7 g "instant" dried yeast (1 packet)
125 g mörk sirap (see the tips above)
250 g water
Method
1. Add all the dry ingredients for day 1 to a bowl. Mix thoroughly and then pour 250 g of boiling water over. Stir again, cover and leave to soak overnight at room temperature.
2. On day 2, lightly oil a 1 kg (2 lb) loaf tin.
3. Add the flours and dried yeast to the bowl of a stand-mixer. Mix thoroughly. Add the soaked grains and seeds and stir again.
4. Add the mörk sirap and water to a saucepan and heat until lukewarm, 35-40ºC (95-105ºF). Pour over the other ingredients and stir thoroughly.
5. Fit the beater* to the stand-mixer and mix the ingredients on a low speed for 8 minutes, stopping every now and again to scrape down the sides.
6. Turn the mixture onto a worksurface dusted with rye flour. Wet your hands and with the aid of a dough scraper shape the dough to roughly match the shape of your loaf tin. Transfer to the oiled loaf tin and smooth the top.
7. Cover with a cloth and leave for a couple of hours until the dough has risen up to the top of the loaf tin.
8. Pre-heat your oven to 250ºC (475ºF, gas 9, fan 230ºC).
9. Sieve some white rye flour over the top of the bread and bake for about 60 minutes, until the inner temperature reaches 98ºC (208ºF).
10. Take out of the oven, tip out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
*As rye dough is almost impossible to knead, I find a beater is more effective than a dough hook.
Comments
See Also
Rågbröd (rye bread) is very popular in Sweden. When thinly sliced it is perfect with cheese or topped with salmon or prawns.
This version uses sunflower seeds and golden linseed as well as cracked rye and wheat to give it a fabulous nutty texture. It’s a really tasty loaf to be enjoyed slowly! Don’t worry it is not dry, it keeps well and it has a fabulous dark crust. John Duxbury
Summary
Makes: One large loaf
Level: Easy
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 60 minutes
TOTAL: 75 minutes
Tips
• Swedes use mörk sirap (dark syrup) which can be bought in specialist shops or online. If you can’t find mörk sirap use 65 g of black treacle and 60 g of golden syrup or 90 g molasses and 35 g corn syrup or golden syrup.
• Some of the other ingredients are not normally stocked by supermarkets, but are worth searching out. For instance, the cracked rye (shown above) helps to give the bread a lovely nutty texture. All the ingredients can be bought at good health food stores or online.
• Some rye breads are best left for 24 hours before slicing but this version is good to eat as soon as it has cooled, so that you can enjoy the fabulous crust and the wonderfully sweet aroma at its freshest.
• If you have a stand-mixer, such as a kMix or a KitchenAid, I recommend using it as the ingredients are very hard to mix.
Ingredients
Day 1
150 g cracked rye
50 g cracked wheat
50 g sunflower seeds
25 g linseeds
12 g salt
250 g* boiling water
*We recommend measuring all quantities in grams.
Day 2
150 g wholemeal (dark) rye flour
150 g white rye flour
150 g wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
7 g "instant" dried yeast (1 packet)
125 g mörk sirap (see the tips above)
250 g water
Method
1. Add all the dry ingredients for day 1 to a bowl. Mix thoroughly and then pour 250 g of boiling water over. Stir again, cover and leave to soak overnight at room temperature.
2. On day 2, lightly oil a 1 kg (2 lb) loaf tin.
3. Add the flours and dried yeast to the bowl of a stand-mixer. Mix thoroughly. Add the soaked grains and seeds and stir again.
4. Add the mörk sirap and water to a saucepan and heat until lukewarm, 35-40ºC (95-105ºF). Pour over the other ingredients and stir thoroughly.
5. Fit the beater* to the stand-mixer and mix the ingredients on a low speed for 8 minutes, stopping every now and again to scrape down the sides.
6. Turn the mixture onto a worksurface dusted with rye flour. Wet your hands and with the aid of a dough scraper shape the dough to roughly match the shape of your loaf tin. Transfer to the oiled loaf tin and smooth the top.
7. Cover with a cloth and leave for a couple of hours until the dough has risen up to the top of the loaf tin.
8. Pre-heat your oven to 250ºC (475ºF, gas 9, fan 230ºC).
9. Sieve some white rye flour over the top of the bread and bake for about 60 minutes, until the inner temperature reaches 98ºC (208ºF).
10. Take out of the oven, tip out of the tin and leave to cool on a wire rack.
*As rye dough is almost impossible to knead, I find a beater is more effective than a dough hook.
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